A lichen, resembling a non-flowering plant, is a composite organism consisting of a fungus (myobiant), and a photosynthetic partner (photobiant) growing together in a symbiotic relationship. The photobiant is usually either or both of an alga and cyanobacterium. In lichens, fungi contain thalli or typical metabolites (Ahmadjin V., The lichen symbiosis, Wiley, New York, pp. 1-6, 1993). Since lichens are difficult to collect in a sufficient amount from nature and their mass production has not yet been established, they are unsatisfactorily studied, compared to higher vegetation.
However, active studies on lichens are now being done and there has appeared an improvement in tissue culture, mass culture, and biochemical analysis for lichens (Behera, B. C. et al., Lebensm. Wiss. Technol., 39:805, 2006). From lichens have been isolated a variety of compounds with biological activities, such as cytotoxicity, fungicidal activity, anti-microbial activity, and antioxidant activity, as exemplified by fatty acids, depside and depsidones, debenzofurans, diterpenes, anthraquinones, naphtoquinones, usninic acid, pulvinic acids, xanthones and epidithiopiperazinediones (Muller, K., Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol., 56:9-16, 2001).
Ramalina terebrata, a variety of lichen, grows wildly, forming colonies on King George Island, Antarctica, and can be easily collected from various places on the island. Previously, the present inventors studied the Antarctic lichen Ramalina terebrata and succeeded in isolating therefrom a novel compound, named ramalin, with excellent antioxidant activity (Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2010-0052130). In addition, ramalin was reported to exhibit excellent anti-inflammatory activity (Korean Patent Application No. 10-2010-005255).
The findings of its excellent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities add necessity to the mass production of ramalin. However, the conventional isolation method of ramalin from Ramalina terebrata using methanol (Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2010-0052130) is problematic in terms of cost and time due to the low growth rate characteristic of the Antarctic lichen, difficulty in mass collection from nature, and a very small content in Ramalina terebrata. 
Leading to the present invention, intensive and thorough research into the novel chemical synthesis of ramalin which is of a simple process and is cost competitive resulted in the finding that ramalin can be simply produced with a high yield by reacting a glutamic acid derivative prepared from alkylchloroformate with a hydrazine salt compound prepared from hydroxy aniline or protected hydroxy aniline
The information described in the Background Art Section is to enhance the understanding of the background of the present invention, and may not be information on the prior art already known to those having ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains.